


I Thought I Wouldn't Be Understood Without Words

by ash_mcj



Series: Teen Wolf Outsider POVs [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1, 5+1 Things, Affectionate Derek Hale, Allison Argent & Malia Tate & Jackson Whittemore are Siblings, Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Chris Argent & Peter Hale & Sheriff Stilinski Friendship, Cora Hale & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Cute Kids, Derek Hale is a Softie, Fluff, Hale Family Feels, Kid Derek Hale, Kid Fic, Kid Stiles Stilinski, Malia Tate & Jackson Whittemore are Peter Hale's Kids, Malia Tate & Jackson Whittemore are Siblings, Multi, POV Outsider, POV Outsider on Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, POV Talia Hale, Peter Hale is Derek Hale’s Parental Figure, Pre-Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), Protective Stiles Stilinski, SECRETLY, Scenting, Stiles Stilinski & Malia Tate Friendship, Stiles Stilinski Has ADHD, Stiles Stilinski Understands Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski is Derek Hale's Favorite, The Hale Family, Werewolf Culture, Werewolf Mates, not talia hale friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27894253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ash_mcj/pseuds/ash_mcj
Summary: [5 Times Talia noticed that her reticent son seemed to have an affinity for Stiles, and 1 Time she understood why]Talia Hale may not have been the most attentive in all parts of her life, but she was a good alpha. A strong alpha. It was her job to know her pack like the back of her hand, and she did. Or, she thought she did. That was until she noticed just how much Stiles Stilinski knew her pack.Stiles had managed to wrap nearly every member of her pack around his small, human finger --even Derek, who was practically allergic to conversations and feelings and everything that wasn't hiding in his den with his books. Stiles understood him as if he wore all his thoughts and emotions on his sleeve, which he didn't. Not even with Stiles.But Stiles knew Derek in a way that Talia didn't even think was possible, because how did the child who hardly stopped to breathe in between words and had no way of sensing Derek's emotions, figure out how to understand him so well through the growls, grunts, and snarls that he tended to communicate with? How did he manage to know him better than her? It made no sense and it was wrong, becauseshewas the alpha.
Relationships: Chris Argent/Peter Hale, Claudia Stilinski/Sheriff Stilinski, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Teen Wolf Outsider POVs [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2003113
Comments: 734
Kudos: 1666
Collections: Sterek Goodness





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, if you're new here :)
> 
> AGES ARE ROUGHLY: Laura (16), Derek (12), Cora and Allison (7), Jackson, Malia, and Stiles (6)  
> Peter Hale and Chris Argent (Hale) are married and live at the Hale House with their three children: Allison, Jackson, and Malia. Their best friend is Noah Stilinski, so Stiles comes to the Hale house very frequently.
> 
> Inspired by the quote from Vincent van Gogh:  
> “I thought I would be understood without words.”

Talia Hale was seated around the small table on the porch of the Hale house, with her brother Peter and his husband Chris. The men were engrossed in a game of chess, while she was skimming through a book she had read one too many times. She needed to go to the bookstore soon for new material.

Her attention was drawn to the driveway as Noah Stilinski’s car pulled up to the house. It had barely parked, before the back door was thrown open and Stiles hopped out. 

“Stiles!” Malia shouted, sprinting towards him as he ran for her with just as much enthusiasm. 

Talia winced lightly as they smacked into each other and both hit the ground, the breath knocked out of their lungs from the force.

“You are both ridiculous,” Cora snorted as she and Allison went over to them. Cora offered a hand to Malia, while Allison offered hers to Stiles. They were pulled to their feet and into a makeshift group hug, with Stiles in the middle.

Talia couldn’t see him at this angle through all the bodies, but she could see the way his hands were squeezed out between the girls and he was petting their hair and hugging them. Finally, he managed to escape the hug and laughed, red-faced. 

“You guys always _squeeze_ me."

“That’s called love,” Malia told him, rubbing her face into his neck one more time, before letting him go.

“It’s my favorite,” Stiles assured them.

He was odd for a human. From the time he was very young, he had never had a problem with allowing the wolves to scent-mark him --no matter how aggressively the girls always attacked him to do it. He never appeared uncomfortable with it in the slightest. He even began mimicking scenting motions back on them, much to Talia’s surprise. It seemed to come naturally to him, as if he were made to be in a pack.

“He’d be a good wolf,” Talia said thoughtfully.

“He would,” Peter agreed, breaking his concentration on the chess board to look over at the boy. “He’s already got the mannerisms down flawlessly. Sometimes I wonder if he knows he’s _not_ a werewolf.”

“Don’t even think about taking away my human...he’s helping me even the wolf-human ratio with Allie and Jax. We’re ridiculously outnumbered as it is,” Chris joked.

“Oh...you feel like a minority in this world full of humans?” Peter questioned, raising an eyebrow. “Let me take a moment to feel sorry for you.”

Stiles then ran up to the porch and hugged Peter. “Good morning!”

“Good morning, Miecz,” Peter smiled, holding him tightly and kissing the top of his head.

After a few seconds, Stiles pulled away and moved to the other side of the table to hug Chris.

“Next time, I get the first hug...you’ll make Peter feel too important if you let him have them,” Chris whispered to him, causing Stiles to laugh and Peter to throw him a playful glare.

After he greeted the man, Stiles turned to address Talia --but paused, looking just past her shoulder. She followed his line of sight to find Derek seated in front of a tree trunk, his legs pulled up to his chest and a book balanced over his knees as he read it.

“Is everything alright?” Talia asked Stiles, confused as to why he was just staring at the older boy across the yard.

Her voice seemed to pull Stiles attention back to her and he opened his arms to offer her a hug. She smiled and leaned forward to embrace him for a short moment, before relaxing back into her chair.

“Why is Derek upset?”

This got all three adults’ attention and they looked over at the twelve-year-old curiously.

“I don’t think he’s upset,” Talia told Stiles. He always looked that way...didn't Stiles know that? “He just gets very focused while reading sometimes.”

Stiles continued staring at Derek with furrowed eyebrows, then shook his head. “No, he’s sad or mad or _something_. I’ll go ask him.”

Stiles took off towards the edge of the woods and sat down in front of Derek. The werewolf didn’t acknowledge him, but that didn’t seem to deter Stiles in the slightest. The younger boy was talking just quietly enough for Talia to not be able to make out what he was saying, but his arms flailed animatedly as he spoke without stopping, so she assumed he was telling a story of some kind.

Talia couldn’t help but watch interestedly as Stiles shifted closer and casually shut Derek’s book. Derek looked at it for a second as if trying to figure out if Stiles had really just shut it while he was reading, before looking at the boy with his eyebrows raised. Stiles then slid the book off his knees entirely and let it fall to the ground. 

The tenseness that Talia hadn’t even noticed in Derek’s shoulders relaxed slowly until he was leaning against the tree trunk, using it more as a back-rest than simply a means of protecting his back as he read. His legs fell open until he was sitting in a cross-legged position, effectively breaking the wall-like divide he had made between himself and the rest of the world. His hands fell to the grass of the front lawn and he brushed his fingers through it absentmindedly. 

“Stiles is good with him, huh?” Chris asked, noticing Talia’s stare. 

“The kid’s a godsend,” Peter said. “Derek doesn’t even have time to be stubborn, because he doesn’t realize that Stiles is taking the stick out of his ass until he’s already let down all his grumpy barriers.”

“Derek hasn’t said a word, but he keeps talking,” Talia noticed. Derek was just watching Stiles speak, obviously having no inclination to stop him or join in. He seemed almost interested in whatever was being said. It made Talia wonder if Stiles was a good storyteller, since Derek never really seemed interested in _anything_.

“Stiles talks enough for the both of them,” Noah chuckled. “That’s probably why Derek keeps him around --conversation comes easy, because he doesn’t have to say anything.”

Suddenly, Stiles got to his feet and ran a few yards further into the trees, before coming back with a fluffy, white dandelion in each hand. He sat in front of Derek again, his legs up against Derek’s in a classic display of his lack of personal space awareness. He handed him one of the dandelions and Derek just stared down at it, completely unimpressed.

“He just told Stiles it’s a weed,” Peter filled the adults in as he watched Derek and Stiles closely. Talia couldn’t hear the conversation at all, so she assumed Peter was at an angle where he could read Derek’s lips.

Stiles closed his eyes and blew on the dandelion, causing the hundreds of small white seeds to fly off of the stem and into the wind. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing _towards_ them, so they all came back into Stiles’ face. Derek's lips stretched into an amused grin as Stiles coughed and wiped his face on his sleeves. With the way his shoulders were shaking just slightly, Talia wondered if her son was actually _laughing_.

Stiles fixed Derek with a look of betrayal, before he leaned forward and blew on the dandelion in Derek’s hand, causing the white tufts to cover his clothes, face, and hair. Derek’s face dropped into a hard line as Stiles took his turn to burst into laughter. Derek stood up and shook his head back and forth, shaking a few of the seeds out of his dark hair, then reached down and pulled Stiles to his feet. He gently held the back of the boy’s neck as he guided him towards the porch.

“This is yours,” Derek said once they reached the adults, lightly pushing Stiles towards Noah.

“Eh, you can have him. He likes you better, anyway.” Noah waved them off.

As if backing up the statement, Stiles grinned up at Derek. The wolf rolled his eyes, but it was obvious by the tightness around his mouth and the uncharacteristic warmth in his green eyes that he was fighting off a smile.

“Play with the girls,” Derek told him, before heading towards the front door.

“Are you coming back?”

Derek turned back to look at him for a moment, before going inside without a response.

“Derek is allowed to have alone time, Stiles,” Noah reminded him.

“I _know_ that,” Stiles said. “But he’s coming back.”

“Stiles!” Cora shouted from across the yard. “We’re playing a game and you’re on my team.”

“Why would I want to be on your team?” Stiles smirked at her. “What if I wanted to be on Malia’s team?”

“ _Malia_? Over _me_?” Cora scoffed. “Just get over here!”

“Bossy, bossy,” Stiles mumbled as he walked down the steps of the porch and went over to the girls. When he reached them, Cora grabbed him by the front of the shirt and flashed her eyes. He pinched her side and she yelped, before pushing him and lightly punching his shoulder.

“If I yell for Derek to bring the watermelon when he comes back out, do you think he will?” Chris asked.

“Maybe, _if_ he actually comes back out,” Talia said.

“If Stiles said he’s coming back, he is.” Peter shrugged. “He wouldn’t have said that if Derek hadn’t told him so.”

“We were right here--he didn’t say anything.”

“Derek rarely says anything,” Noah pointed out. “That doesn’t stop Stiles from reading him like a book. The kid is like a Derek Translator.” 

Talia looked at Stiles running around with the girls and couldn’t help but be intrigued, yet slightly annoyed. The kid was not a wolf...he couldn’t possibly detect Derek’s chemosignals to figure out how he felt, the way the rest of the wolves did. Even with that ability, Talia was usually guessing to figure out what Derek was thinking or feeling. She couldn’t imagine having to rely on just Derek’s actions, because the kid was practically allergic to all kinds of communication and he almost never expressed any other physical reactions that weren’t grumpy and closed-off. The smile she saw him give Stiles by the tree was the first she had even seen in at least a month. The _laugh_...she honestly wasn't sure if she'd ever seen him do that. She couldn't picture the way it sounded, so she was guessing that she hadn't heard it before. Or at least, not often enough to remember.

Noah was right, though. Stiles knew that Derek was upset the second he caught sight of him. He saw the tenseness of his body...recognized the way he closed himself off with his legs...noticed that something was wrong, just by looking at him from across the yard. How was that possible? Talia didn’t even see that he was tensed until she saw him relax. Then again, she wasn’t sure the last time she had seen him so relaxed. What did that mean? Was Derek usually upset? He always looked that way to her, but his chemosignals rarely suggested it. For a child who expressed his feelings so seldomly, he felt things very strongly, which made it easy to read his scent. It was the only way she knew how to communicate with him, since ‘grumpy, growly, werewolf’ had been his entire personality since he was young. She wasn’t even overly aware that the version of Derek she had seen at the tree just now _existed._

“You wanted this?” Derek asked as he came back outside with the container of watermelon.

“Yes, _please_ ,” Chris said, reaching out to take it from his hands. “You’re amazing--I love you.”

Derek grabbed a piece from the Tupperware as soon as Chris had removed the lid, and then sat on the porch step. Stiles noticed Derek’s presence again as he ran from Allison and made a detour towards him. As he passed, he plucked the watermelon from his hand and sunk his teeth into it. Before he could make his escape, Derek fisted his hand in the back of his shirt and pulled him down to sit on the porch. Talia was shocked as Derek made no move to take the food back from him. Since when did Derek allow his food to be taken?

“Pause!” Stiles shrieked as Allison got closer to him. “Derek is making me sit, so this doesn’t count!”

“Fine,” Allison huffed. She wandered back over to Malia.

“You just wanted me to lose,” Stiles accused Derek.

“You eat, you sit.”

“I can’t choke on _watermelon_ . It’s basically _water_. Why do I have to sit?”

“You _can_ choke on watermelon,” Derek corrected. “And water.”

Stiles looked like he wanted to argue some more, but he settled for just glaring at Derek as he finished the piece of watermelon he had stolen. Once only the green rind was left, Stiles stood up and went over to the table to get two more slices --specifically, the two largest that he could find. He returned to the spot beside Derek and handed him the bigger of the two.

“Did you know that you can actually eat the green part? It’s food, just like the red part --it just tastes different," Stiles said, looking at the rind as if considering whether or not he should try it.

“Don’t,” Derek grunted.

“I didn’t say I was _going_ to eat it...I’m just saying that I _could_ and it would be okay.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“I’m _not_!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have spent a lot of hours working on the next book ("From The Darkness Comes A Spark") and it's...ahh, I'm excited. It'll be pretty angsty, but I will tie in lots of fluff and Hale family feels and jealous Derek/Stiles to break up the sad. I think it will be really awesome and I think you guys will like it. I hope, anyway.

The living room was quiet for once, with only Talia, Laura, and Jackson seated on the couch as they played Go Fish. Laura was settled in the corner of the chaise longue section of the sofa, with Jackson laying on her, his head rested on her stomach and his legs tangled in hers. She held her cards up above his head while her other hand brushed through his chocolate brown hair affectionately.

“I can feel you looking at my cards,” Jackson accused as he hid them against his chest and looked up at his cousin.

“I’m not.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Then don’t lay like that. You’re basically putting your cards in my face.”

Jackson gave her a calculating look, as if debating if moving was actually worth it, before nestling back into her abdomen and looking at his cards again.

The three of them turned towards the entryway when they heard the front door open and Stiles walked into the living room. He looked around before asking, “Where’s Derek?”

“You have eyes...go look,” Jackson told him, dislike evident in the subtle pinch of his features and downturn of his mouth.

“He’s in his room, I think,” Laura supplied.

Derek then silently stepped out from the entryway, nearly startling Talia. How did he always move so quietly? Stiles followed Talia’s sightline and turned around to face him, the boy’s demeanor instantly perking up as he rushed toward Derek.

“Der! I was looking for you.”

“You didn’t look at all,” Jackson pointed out.

“I got you a present.” Stiles pulled two strips of what appeared to be multicolored fabric from his pockets and held them out for Derek to see.

He raised his eyebrow skeptically, but came further into the room to get a better look at what Stiles was holding. Stiles held them up so he could see them closer, which allowed Talia to get a better view of what they were, as well.

They were bracelets made out of colored string. The one in his right hand was patterned in vertical rows of diamonds made of various shades of green, while the other was blue, orange, and white with large triangles lining the sides.

“Are those friendship bracelets?” Jackson snorted. “You hang out with the girls so much you’re turning  _ into  _ one.”

Derek’s eyes flashed in his cousin’s direction, the gold holding a threat that caused the younger boy to shift slightly closer to Laura.

“You’re supposed to be looking at my present,” Stiles said, pulling Derek’s attention back to the bracelets dangling from his fingers. “Just ignore Jackson --he’s only jealous because no one makes him friendship bracelets.”

“Yeah right! I wouldn’t even want one. I'm not a loser like you.”

“If you weren’t so mean all the time, I would be your friend, you know.”

“I wouldn’t want to be your friend if you were the last person on earth.”

"You'll like me one day," Stiles told him confidently, before looking back at Derek and shaking his hands a little. “So...which do you want, Der Bear?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Just pick already!”

Derek reached out to gently touch the first one, his fingers trailing along the lines of small stitched diamonds, then he moved over to do the same with the second bracelet.

Suddenly, Stiles grinned widely and held the green one out for him to take. For a moment, Talia thought he had chosen for Derek. Derek had given no real indication that he favored the first one, so it was a reasonable assumption to make. Besides, Stiles was a child...he probably just preferred the blue one, so he was forcing Derek to take the green. Then, however, she smelled the happy chemosignals radiating from her son as he took the bracelet from Stiles and looked it over carefully. He really  _ did  _ like that one.

“I knew you’d pick that one! I even told Malia you would.”

“I still don’t know how you do that,” Jackson said, looking between the two of them.

“Do what?” Stiles asked.

“Read his mind or something --I don’t know.” Jackson shrugged with the shoulder he wasn’t lying on. “He looked like he hated both of them --his face was all mad the whole time.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Stiles told him, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “His eyes were happier when he touched the green one, so I know that he liked that one better. I didn’t read his mind. That would be so cool though! Can you imagine if I was a  _ mind-reader, _ Derek?”

“No,” Derek said as he reached his hand out. Stiles dropped the blue bracelet into his palm and held his arm out for Derek to secure the bracelet onto his wrist.

Talia watched as Derek tied the strings firmly and wondered if  _ that  _ was what Stiles was talking about by his eyes looking happy. She could only see them from a side angle, since he wasn’t looking at her, but she didn’t need the full view. They were a bright, yet calm green that appeared almost...gentle --which was not a word she would have ever associated with Derek Hale. After he finished the knot, he slid one hand up to hold Stiles’ forearm for a brief moment, just long enough to rub his thumb into the boy’s inner arm three times, before letting it go.

Did he just...scent him?

“Thanks,” Stiles chirped, looking at his bracelet. “I will definitely mess up if I try to tie yours on...Ms. Talia, could you help Derek?”

“Of course,” Talia said, motioning for her son to come closer.

The second Derek’s eyes left Stiles and drifted over to her, they went from a soothing nature green to a cool, hard jade that made Talia’s jaw clench slightly. How could one’s eyes change so abruptly? What had Stiles done that allowed him to be looked at like he wasn’t an inconvenience in Derek’s life? If Derek was going to look at anyone with that level of openness and affection, it should have been his Alpha.

Derek moved closer to her and handed her the bracelet. He held his arm out, his fist clenched tightly and his shoulders tense as he watched her face, as if he was analyzing her expressions to sense danger. She had never harmed him in his life --she really didn’t deserve how on-edge he was with her. She wanted to say something about it, but she held her tongue.

As she tied the second knot, Derek’s fist unclenched and his hand fell slightly open to expose his palm. She nearly smiled at the fact that he seemed to be relaxing, but the happiness was quickly gone when she glanced up to see that Stiles had rested his head against Derek’s side. Of course. She let go of his arm and he pulled it back towards himself quickly, as if he had been waiting to have his limb away from her the entire time.

Stiles immediately grabbed the arm and yanked it closer to his face to inspect the knot. Derek moved easily into Stiles’ space, allowing him to tug at the bracelet several times until he was satisfied that it wouldn’t come loose.

Derek really did have some sort of switch for his emotions. One second, he seemed almost normal. Relaxed. Then the next, he was ready to fight everything in his vicinity and escape.

“Wanna watch a movie?” Stiles asked Derek, dropping his arm.

Derek nodded, then said, “Upstairs.” 

Gods forbid that Derek spend any length of time with his  _ actual  _ pack. Did Talia fail him? Did she really fail to instill any sense of pack importance to him? Being a part of a pack meant more than just loving your packmates --you were supposed to actually be involved in their lives. Derek never seemed interested in that in the slightest.

Stiles smiled up at him in an odd way that Talia hadn’t seen before, where he lifted and curled his upper lip just a little too high by scrunching his nose. Then, he was gone --sprinting out of the room and up the stairs. Derek seemed to understand what the odd toothy smile meant, though, because he darted after him and growled loudly as he chased him up the stairs. Stiles squealed in laughter and then Derek’s door was thrown open hard enough for it to bang against the inner wall of the bedroom.

Talia was in shock. That...that was Derek  _ playing _ . Derek never played. Growling and snarling always meant his control was slipping, but that...that was different. That growl was threatening, yet there was absolutely no genuine heat behind it. Stiles --little human Stiles--  _ bared his teeth _ to tell Derek that he wanted to basically be hunted. And Talia really wasn’t sure what to think about that in the slightest.

“You okay, Mom?” Laura asked.

“Does Derek usually play like that?”

“With Stiles.” Jackson nodded. “Up the stairs or in the woods. The girls play, too, when they do it in the woods.”

“I’ve never noticed,” Talia admitted. 

“I’ve never seen him do it with you around before, actually.”

“Sometimes my dads play, too,” Jackson added. “They go in two teams...the hiders and the hunters. A few of them hide in the woods and then the hunters have to find them.”

“Sometimes the hunters can use their smell, sometimes they can’t. The rules change all the time.”

“Derek has never wanted to play with the pups before," Talia said.

“Not unless Stiles is there,” Laura corrected. “Derek will do pretty much whatever Stiles asks of him.”

“It makes no sense. His anchor should tie him to his humanity so that he can act...well,  _ normal _ all the time. He shouldn’t  _ only  _ act like a decent person around his anchor. Stiles should be making him act better for the  _ pack,  _ not just for himself.”

“Maybe Stiles is just selfish and you shouldn’t let him at the pack house anymore,” Jackson suggested.

“I don’t think Stiles has any nefarious intentions.” Laura rolled her eyes exasperatedly. “He literally just talks and anxiously flails all over the place and Derek somehow finds it calming or something. If Derek doesn’t like being around the pack without Stiles, I think it’s more likely that he just...doesn’t _want_ to. Rather than Stiles plotting or whatever. He’s six.”

“So am I...and I’m capable of plotting,” Jackson pointed out.

“Well, that’s because you’re horrible,” Allison said from the entryway.

“Where did you even come from?” Jackson exclaimed. 

“I was in the kitchen this whole time. Anyway, I don’t think Derek hates the pack or anything. He loves us --he just doesn’t like people. Everyone knows that.”

“Does that mean Stiles isn’t a person?”

“It means Stiles is special. Derek likes him and he is  _ way  _ better with him around. He watches movies with us, he plays with us, he eats in the kitchen around us more. Stiles is helping him be nicer and --I don’t know-- hate people less? Or something like that, anyway.”

“He’s still annoying,” Jackson grumbled.

“So are you, but we still let you be at the pack house.”

“I wish Laura was my sister instead.”

“I do, too. You and Cora should just switch. Then I would have two sisters instead of a mean brother.”

“Cora  _ is  _ mean,” Jackson argued.

“No, she’s...well, yeah, she’s a little mean. But not  _ mean _ -mean. You’re a  _ bully _ . She just...threatens...but usually with love.”

Jackson stared at her in confusion for a moment, before looking to Laura as if to see if she was making any sense of this conversation. She just shook her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone wants to be my friend on Tumblr (I literally have 9 friends), my name on there is ash-mcj


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you didn't think you'd see me for a couple more days, but I'm here!
> 
> Thank you guys so much for your amazing comments and support--I appreciate every single one of you SO MUCH and you really inspire me to keep writing these. I hope I see you guys in the comments throughout the rest of these books...I love when I see that people are actually on this journey with me and sticking around. You're awesome.

It wasn't often that Talia was alone with the pups, but Peter had to meet with a client he was representing and Chris had been called into the office --which was how the Alpha ended up in the kitchen, setting a variety of sandwich ingredients out on the countertop. Chris always made them food when they got home from school, so the responsibility had fallen to Talia in his absence, as the only adult in the house.

She could hear them talking loudly in the living room as they tried to decide which movie to put on the television, and she hoped that would occupy them long enough for her to make the sandwiches. She was setting out seven slices of bread, when Stiles walked into the kitchen, bringing the strong scent of cinnamon with him. She couldn't understand how the other wolves were able to handle being around him so often --his scent always tickled her nose.

“Hello, Stiles,” Talia greeted lightly, glancing over her shoulder at the young boy as he pulled a chair out and sat at the kitchen table.

“Do you need my help or anything?”

“No, thank you,” She told him. She was confident that she could handle making sandwiches without the help of a six-year-old. Besides, she would have gotten Laura to assist her, if she _had_ needed help. There wasn’t all that much she would trust Stiles to do in her kitchen.

“Okay,” He said, not making any move to leave. “Well, I know what everyone likes on their sandwiches...I help Mr. Chris a lot. So, you can ask me...if you _do_ need help.”

“I think I’ll manage just fine. Why don’t you go into the living room with the pups?”

“I don’t want to watch TV.” Stiles shrugged, either not catching the light annoyance in her tone or simply choosing to ignore it

Of course Stiles would want to watch her make sandwiches instead of watch television like a normal child. Just her luck.

Talia began by making Laura and Jackson’s sandwiches, which were the same as she liked her own: turkey, swiss cheese, lettuce, mustard, and mayonnaise. She made sure to put an extra slice of cheese on her nephew’s, before placing the second pieces of bread on top of both sandwiches to finish them off. Two down, five to go.

Then, she paused. She couldn’t remember the last time she had made the rest of the pups sandwiches...had she ever? Chris had taken up most of the cooking duties when he moved in as a teenager. He had fallen into place as the pack’s denmaker and Talia never really had a reason to do more than help here and there, when he asked. Otherwise, the kitchen was usually his territory. Since she already had the turkey out, she figured she might as well use it for the remaining sandwiches. She was halfway through with the row, before Stiles spoke up again.

“Don’t forget that Malia and Cora don’t like turkey,” He reminded her, a slightly hubristic smirk playing on his lips behind her back. “Malia will only eat it if it has lots of roast beast, and Cora likes chicken. Both have cheese... and _mayonnaise_ \--which is _disgusting_. Mayonnaise is the grossest ever.”

“I know that,” Talia lied. Her irritation grew as she turned and caught the hints of his smirk, which he quickly hid by biting his lower lip. He had an amused glint in his eye, as if he was basically taunting her and it made her blood boil. “It’s roast _beef_ , not beast.”

“I know you know,” Stiles said offhandedly, looking down at the lines in the tabletop and tracing them with his finger. “I just like to help, that’s all. I’m just _reminding_ you, in case you forgot.”

Talia returned her attention to making the sandwiches as Derek and Cora came into the kitchen. Derek went to the refrigerator, while Cora slid into the same seat as Stiles, pushing him over a little so that she could fit snug beside him, and put her arm around his shoulders.

“Is Stiles trying to be in charge of the kitchen again?” Cora asked, looking at him pointedly.

“I’m just helping! Sometimes it’s hard to not mix things up, you know. Like...maybe your mom forgot that Derek and I like turkey with cheese and mustard, but _no mayonnaise_.”

“I didn’t forget,” Talia snapped. To forget, she would have had to know at some point, which she didn’t. Why would she? She never had a reason to.

Derek tensed for a moment and shot her a brief, unpleasant look that she couldn’t quite distinguish, before returning his attention to the refrigerator. He got out the packages of roast beef and chicken and tossed them onto the counter in front of her, then took a cold bottle of white Gatorade off the shelf.

“That’s good that you already know how Derek likes his sandwiches,” Cora said teasingly. “It’ll be helpful when you get married.”

Derek choked on his drink --which spurted out of his mouth, and likely his nose as well, but Talia couldn't quite tell-- and began coughing, sending Cora into a fit of laughter.

“We are not getting married!” Stiles squawked, an utterly scandalized expression on his face.

“Well you have to move into the pack house when you grow up _somehow_! The easiest way to become a Hale is to marry one of us. If you don’t marry Derek, you’d have to marry me or Malia or Allie --and I love you Stiles, but I’m _not_ marrying you. You’re my brother. You’re like Allie’s brother, too; she told me. And I think Malia is going to marry a deer or something, because that’s all she ever thinks about. You’re already Derek’s anchor, though, so it would be perfect to just marry him!”

“ _No one_ is marrying _anyone_ ,” Derek told her sternly.

“We’ll see." She gave him a sly grin, then slipped off the chair and headed back towards the living room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was asked about my Twitter, so I figure I'll just throw this in here in case anyone wants to be my friend on there...My handle is @CravoAsh


	4. Chapter 4

Talia was seated on the couch with Laura to her left, who was curled around Jackson, as usual. On her right, Chris was relaxed with his arm slung over the back of the couch behind his husband’s head, while Noah was leaned into Peter's side.

Stiles, Allison, Cora, and Malia were on the ground, a board game in progress between them. They had been at it for about half an hour, while the adults sat there in the living room, sipping wine and talking about holiday plans.

“Does anyone have any ideas about what Derek might like for Christmas?” Talia asked, looking over at her brother and Chris, who she knew were the most likely to have an answer, since they spent the most time with the pups.

“Derek doesn’t _like_ anything,” Jackson snorted. 

“Just plop a bow on Stiles’ head,” Peter teased, looking over at the boy. “Miecz, can I put a bow on you and give you to Derek for Christmas? I want to give the best gift this year and I know you’d take the cake.”

“If anyone is giving my son away, it’s me,” Noah said, throwing a playful wink at Stiles, who appeared mildly offended.

“Derek likes _lots_ of things,” He told them. “Like grass and cookies and dragons --oh, and books with magic!”

“I’m baking snickerdoodles --so far I think that means I’m winning the best present award,” Chris said.

"No, the gift of baked goods that will be shared amongst the entire pack only gets you the cheap uncle award." Peter rolled his eyes. "But, hey, enjoy your prize."

“Well, Stiles, we’re lucky he talks to you about it,” Talia sighed. “He never says anything to us.”

“Yeah, he _never_ communicates. He’s totally allergic.” Laura shook her head.

Peter tensed and opened his mouth --likely to argue-- but Chris put his hand on his knee and gave it a light squeeze, placating him. He leaned back into the cushions and Chris shifted further away from Talia to curl slightly into Peter’s side.

While Peter and Chris were managing to refrain from upsetting their Alpha, Stiles held no such reservations.

“What are you talking about?” He asked, his eyebrows drawn together as he looked at Laura. “Derek communicates. Do you even _know_ him?”

“Growling isn’t communicating, Stupid,” Jackson defended her.

“It’s not just growling. There’s lots of eyebrows and eyes and his body. Sometimes his shoulders get really tight or his hands get all fisted or his eyes look...I don’t know --hard? Or Soft. He doesn’t talk a lot, but he communicates.”

“I think what Jackson meant is that Derek needs to use his words more, because it’s hard to understand him otherwise,” Talia explained.

“No, he doesn’t _need_ to talk,” Stiles corrected, a sharp edge in his voice as he turned his body to face Talia. “Just because _you_ need words doesn’t mean _he_ needs to give them to you. He doesn’t like talking --it’s hard for him a lot of the time. It’s not super hard to understand him, though, if you _know_ him. It’s not his fault you don’t understand --maybe you should spend more time with him.”

The entire room held a collective breath as the energy in the room quickly became charged with Stiles’ words and the implications of what he was saying. In front of the entire pack, no less. Cora’s mouth was agape, looking back and forth between her best friend and her mother. Allison’s eyes were wide and she suddenly found the _Sorry_ board on the ground very interesting, doing her best to not pay attention to the situation. Malia wasn’t nearly as subtle, as she stared at Talia with open shock and apprehension across her delicate features.

Peter was watching Stiles in all his unashamed confidence and grinned proudly at him, which caused Chris to subtly shake his head as he chewed on the inside of his lip, trying desperately to maintain his composure. Noah was leaned forward, his elbows perched on his knees as he hid his face in his hands and looked as if he would rather have been _anywhere_ other than the Hale living room in that moment.

“Unfortunately, I can’t spend all of my time trying to decipher miniscule body movements--I have responsibilities that you couldn’t possibly understand, Stiles,” Talia ground out. She could feel Laura’s eyes on her, waiting to see how she would handle the situation, which only further fueled her embarrassment and anger. “I don’t always have time to spend every waking hour--”

“I know you don’t. But that’s _why_ you don’t understand him. I come here all the time and I never see you even _try_ to spend any time with him. That’s why you think he doesn’t communicate --you don’t know him. Like, not even a little bit.”

Talia’s eyes flared red and she stood up in an instinctual display of stating her dominance, but Stiles didn’t flinch in the slightest as he easily maintained the eye contact he had been holding since he opened his mouth. How dare this child come into _her_ den and suggest that she was a bad mother? That, by extension of not knowing her son, she was a bad alpha? Stiles was a guest in her house and she almost wasn’t sure how to respond to the blatant disrespect. Her experience dealing with children his age was limited --Laura and Jackson, who hadn’t left her side since the day they were born, had never stood up to her this way.

As suddenly as Talia was on her feet, Derek was in the living room, moving swiftly in front of Stiles. His eyes glowed yellow and a low warning growl rumbled in his chest, much to Talia’s surprise. As her beta --especially a pup-- he should have been cowering. He should have been baring his neck. Instinctually, he should not have been able to challenge her this way.

The girls all had their eyes averted and their necks showing, but Derek stood firmly a few feet from her, his posture tense and slightly crouched in a defensive pose.

If the couch wasn’t directly behind her, Talia would have stepped back in pure shock. How could Derek even think for a second that Stiles would need protecting from her? She was standing and her eyes were shining, but that was not inherently aggressive --that was dominance. She had done it countless times when Peter or the pups tried to go against her wishes, so he should have known that. Then she noticed that his ears were elongated and his forehead was beginning to protrude as he began shifting. His control was slipping, which made a little more sense as to why his demeanor was so aggressive. Then again, his wolf should have backed down to her as his Alpha.

“Derek,” Talia said sternly, not appreciating the way he was blatantly challenging her in front of everyone. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the human child did it --now her own beta? Her own _son_? She was beginning to question if Stiles' influence over Derek wasn't as much of a blessing as she once thought. She knew she needed to gain control of the situation quickly, since he was within claws-distance from the girls on the floor, and Stiles. She took a step closer towards him. "You need to calm down."

With her move to approach him, he bared his teeth and reached behind him to push Stiles back slightly.

“Talia, sit down,” Chris told her, speaking in the calm, professional voice he always used when acting as her Right Hand. “His wolf thinks you’re being aggressive towards Stiles. You _need_ to back up.”

“He should know--”

“What --are you about to fight him? What is this accomplishing other than pushing him further towards his wolf?”

When Talia made no move to stand down, Peter hissed, “Talia, for the love of the Gods, put your ego away. This is obviously not the time.”

“Mom,” Laura said softly, reaching out and taking her arm.

Talia’s wolf was _livid_ at the idea of backing down to one of her betas, but she knew they were right. She wasn’t going to be able to get Derek anchored and there was no point in trying. She lowered her eyes in an act of subordination, much to her great annoyance, and let Laura pull her back down onto the couch.

Derek relaxed slightly and straightened up again, and Stiles came over to stand beside him. He reached up to gently brush his hand over the side of Derek’s face, then backwards over his pointed ear and down the back of his head in a fluid sweeping motion. His hand trailed down Derek’s neck and his back until it settled just below his ribs and he drew circle patterns into the fabric of his shirt. Derek’s eyes shut and he took a deep breath as he deshifted, letting Stiles’ touch pull him back to his right mind. He put a hand out and ran it through Stiles’ hair and down his neck, before opening his eyes again and looking down at him.

“Well, hello,” Stiles smiled cheerfully, as if the entire fiasco hadn’t happened at all. “I have a question --what’s minscool? Your mom said it, but I don’t know what it means.”

Derek let out a sound that fell somewhere between a grunt and a grumble, which caused Stiles to roll his eyes.

“I don’t think that’s what it means, growly wolf.”

“Miniscule,” Derek said, his voice rough and barely above a whisper. “Means really small.”

“Oh...hm,” Stiles hummed, a thoughtful expression on his face as he looked off at nothing in particular. “That’s a weird word to mean really small.”

Talia wanted to say something, but she held her tongue. It was a conversation she would need to have with Derek, but this wasn’t the time. 

“C’mon, let’s go read,” Stiles said, bunching the bottom of Derek’s shirt in his hand and dragging him out of the room. When they got to the stairs, Talia heard Stiles whisper, “I was losing in my game with the girls, but I can’t lose if I don’t finish, right?”

Talia glanced over at Peter, who was still sporting a shit-eating grin and shaking his head.

“Do you have something to add, Brother?”

“No, I think my dear godson handled this one flawlessly, actually.”

“Peter,” Chris warned, shooting him a meaningful look.

“Talia, I’m _so_ sorry for him--” Noah began to say, but was cut off by Peter.

“Oh, don’t apologize, Noah.” Peter waved him off as he stood up. “You have a six-year-old who isn’t afraid to stand up to an alpha werewolf --that’s hardly something to apologize for. You should be proud...I know I am.”

“You should help me in the kitchen,” Chris said, quickly getting to his feet and grabbing Peter by the elbow to escort him out of the room. Noah followed after them, eager to escape the still-lingering tension in the air.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys...I woke up yesterday morning to see all those amazing comments on chapter 4 and I literally cried because I couldn't believe how awesome you are and how you're actually enjoying this. It makes me so happy, because I am loving writing it and it just feels so rewarding that you guys are sharing the love for this series. Ahh, thank you. All of you-- even those who aren't commenting. I appreciate your kudos and bookmarks. I see you and I appreciate you :) (and those of you who are just lurking and reading without any kind of interaction...I see and appreciate you, too. And I'd love to hear from you, if you feel inclined at any point)

As Talia climbed out of her car and locked the doors, she wanted nothing more than to just lay down. She had been on-edge since the altercation the day before and it really caused the entire work day to be a bit of a drag. She knew she needed to speak with Derek, but what was she supposed to say? It’s not like he’d have anything to say in return.

Malia and Jackson were wrestling in the yard, completely oblivious to her presence --or perhaps just ignoring it in favor of trying to pin the other to the ground. Peter was seated at the table on the porch, leaned back in his chair with a book open in his hand.

“Peter,” Talia greeted monotonously as she ascended the wooden stairs.

“Got it in one,” he said, not bothering to look away from the page he was reading.

“Is Derek in his room?”

“To my knowledge...are you planning on having a talk with him about what happened?”

“You don’t think I should?” Talia scoffed.

“Do you genuinely want my answer, or are you just trying to feel like you’re doing the right thing by consulting a member of your council for once, before doing something...impulsive?”

“Why must you always be so insufferable?”

“It’s one of my best qualities.”

“So, what? You really don’t think I should address that whole... _fiasco_?”

“I didn’t say that. I _definitely_ think you need to, but not for the reasons I know _you’re_ thinking you should.”

“Please, enlighten me,” She sighed, clearly expecting her brother to unleash all of the hostility he kept pent up against her, now that she’d given him permission. She knew his feelings towards her and though it was unfortunate, it was who he was. Jealous. Hateful. Exhausting, really --she had no idea how Chris managed to deal with him.

Peter finally looked up at her as he set his book on the table, then leaned forward slightly with a hateful look in his eye and a judgmental raise of his eyebrow.

“You tried to assert dominance against a _six-year-old_ , of whom you are not even his Alpha, because he wounded your ego by daring to tell you the truth when the rest of us were too busy trying to keep the peace because we want to avoid World War Talia.”

“He was a guest in my house--”

“Oh, don’t act like you don’t see us _all_ as guests in the mighty Talia Hale’s house. It’s never been a pack house with you...it’s the Alpha’s house and we’re all supposed to be grateful that you keep us around.”

“You seemed to agree that I was rather generous to allow you and your _mate_ to stay after everything you’ve both done to this pack.”

“I think we've more than earned our keep.”

“And that’s for you to decide?”

“As much as I love running in circles with you regarding the past, we were talking about something a bit more pressing, weren’t we?”

“Stiles has been around this pack for as long as Malia and Jackson have. They know better, and Stiles should have, too. He was challenging my authority as Alpha and I was trying to reestablish who was in charge. That’s what you do with children --you don’t let them walk all over you.”

“Parenting advice, really? That’s a bit rich, coming from you.”

“Watch yourself.”

“My kids have never attempted to walk all over me. Neither has Stiles. Hell, neither have _your_ children, for that matter. You want to know why? It's because I don’t give them a reason to. They don’t feel the need to call me on my failures as a parent or guardian because _I_ don’t fail them,” Peter told her, a slight growl in his voice. “Stiles was not attacking you. He was calm, seated, and he handled the situation embarrassingly better than you did. He was telling you that you’re slacking and the only reason you decided to throw a tantrum was because you were _threatened_ by him. Because he was right and you know it. Please skip trying to pretend it was anything other than that, because I’ve known you far too long to believe you.”

Talia was about to retort, but Chris’ car pulled into the driveway. Cora jumped out of the backseat and sprinted directly to the porch, taking the steps in one bound, and barely skidding to a stop before crashing into Peter.

“Look what we got, Uncle Peter!” Cora exclaimed, holding up a plastic shopping bag full of packages of steaks.

“Are you cooking those?” Peter smiled, relaxing back into his chair.

“No! You are --Uncle Chris said you have to make them on the barbecue this time.”

“That’s because Uncle Chris can’t use the barbecue without setting himself on fire. He bakes everything.”

“Lies and slander, from my own husband.” Chris shook his head, walking towards them. His hands were full of several bags. He looked at Cora and asked, “Sweetheart, could you please take a couple of these?”

“Oh, right.” Cora grimaced. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“If you help me make the salad, I’ll forgive you.”

“No thalad!” Malia complained from the far end of the front yard, her speech slightly slurred from the fangs that had dropped while fighting Jackson.

“No shifting,” Chris told her pointedly. “I like your brother in one piece.”

“I don’t,” Malia grumbled, collapsing onto her back beside Jackson as they both worked to catch their breath.

“Do we have to put tomatoes in the salad?” Cora asked. “I hate them.”

“I know.” Chris shook his head, pushing her into the house.

“Was that enough enlightenment, or should I go on?” Peter asked her, a cocky smile playing on his lips. 

She headed into the house without another word and stormed up the stairs. Distracted by the anger and slight jealousy sparked by Chris and Cora’s laughter echoing from the kitchen, Talia didn’t think twice before walking into Derek’s room.

He was lying on his bed with Stiles on his back, looking over his shoulder at the book Derek was softly reading aloud to him. Within a split second of Talia’s presence, the relaxed scene turned to one of pure hostility. Derek pushed himself up onto his knees, knocking Stiles off his back and into the pillows piled against the headboard. He braced himself in front of the younger boy and growled warningly, his eyes burning brightly and his nose flaring as he took in her scent.

“I wanted to speak with you.”

“You guys should maybe talk in your room or something,” Stiles suggested, peeking out at her over Derek’s shoulder. When she didn’t move immediately, he added, “Like, _not_ in his den.”

Talia then realized that she was so caught up in her thoughts, she had walked into Derek’s room. Without warning. While smelling of anger, which was really directed at Peter and Chris, and even Cora --but it wasn't like Derek would be able to decipher that. She sighed and backed into the hallway, which seemed to be the right decision, since Derek’s growling subsided. How was it possible that he would allow Stiles to be in his _bed_ , laying on his back and holding him down --but the moment Talia took _one_ step into the room, he was all hostility and partial shifting? It was offensive.

“You go talk to your mom and I'll find what page we were on for when you come back,” Stiles said, moving around the werewolf wall that Derek had made of himself, between Stiles and Talia. He grabbed _Magic Treehouse #5_ off the blanket and flipped it open. “I think it was like page thirty or something.”

“Yeah, let’s go to my room,” Talia agreed.

Derek slid off the bed and walked over to his mother, his eyes fading to their natural earthy green as he exited the room. Derek stopped when he reached the hallway and Talia realized that he was waiting for her to lead the way, so she did. They walked in silence, until they reached the double doors of her bedroom, and then she pushed them open. She flitted to the bed and sat down, while Derek paused in the doorway to glance around her bedroom. His nose twitched a few times as he smelled the new area, then he slid sideways and plastered his back to the wall by the door.

“Come in.” She beckoned, patting the bed beside her, but Derek made no move to approach her. She wasn’t surprised.

“I wanted to talk to you about yesterday. It’s come to my attention that how I acted may have come across as hostile, which it wasn’t. I would never hurt Stiles --or any child, for that matter. And I would be lying if I said it wasn’t hurtful that you assumed I would,” Talia said. Derek raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. What did eyebrows even mean? “I think it’s concerning that you were so ready to challenge your Alpha. I understand that Stiles has become your anchor and I know you feel like he’s your pack, but--”

“He _is_ pack.”

“I was referring to actual pack bonds, not pack adjacent members.”

“Uncle Peter...Cora...Malia...me...we _do_ have pack bonds with Stiles,” Derek revealed, glancing down at his feet for a moment, before returning to eye contact.

Talia wasn’t sure how to respond to that, because...what? She was aware that Peter had formed a pack bond with Noah, so she wasn’t overly surprised that he had one with Stiles, as well. He was his godson, after all. That would not make Stiles _real_ pack, though. That would make him more like Peter’s responsibility, rather than an actual member of the pack. However, it apparently _wasn’t_ just Peter. Four of the six wolves in the Hale family had pack bonds with Stiles, which...well, that _did_ make him pack. Maybe not directly Talia’s, but he was to the majority of her betas. She wasn’t even aware that the girls knew _how_ to form pack bonds with an outsider. Familial bonds are born into pups, but consciously forming bonds with outsiders? That was a learned thing, and Talia knew that she had never taught any of them how to do it yet --not even Laura. The only person who could have taught them was Peter...without consulting her, of course. She wished she was more surprised that her brother would be meddling with pack affairs behind her back. How did they manage to bring Stiles into the pack without the Alpha’s approval? She had never even heard of such a thing!

“That’s not an excuse for you to challenge me,” She finally said. “This is still my house and I have every right to restrict the time Stiles spends here, if I see that it is negatively impacting your respect for me and our pack.”

“ _You_ challenged Stiles.”

“No, I was asserting who is in charge in this pack. Since you’ve all decided to have him join the pack --without my permission, might I add-- he should know that it is not okay to speak to his Alpha disrespectfully. To call me out as a bad Alpha and mother in front of the pack...that was completely inappropriate.”

Derek’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before a look of vexation took over his features as if what she said came as a personal affront to him --or maybe Stiles, since he seemed to be so protective over him. Then, his face steeled itself back into composure. “You’re not his Alpha.”

“If he is a part of this pack, I am. You had no right to step in when I was--”

“Threatening him?”

“I was _not_ threatening him. You misinterpreted me. What were you hoping to accomplish with that little show? Were you going to fight me? What was that?” She asked. Derek shrugged, but made no indication that he had much else to say, so she continued. “I don’t even know how you did that. You didn’t even waver when standing up to me --it was like I wasn’t even your Alpha.”

Derek didn’t say anything --verbally or physically, and it made Talia recoil slightly as her eyebrows shot up. She could feel the pack bond she had with Derek, so she knew that she _was_ his Alpha, but his behavior sure wasn’t suggesting it. Was he not seeing her that way? “Am I not?”

“Didn’t say that.”

“You aren’t saying _anything_ , Derek. Can you just talk to me for a second?”

“I am.”

“Not really. I’m not Stiles --I can’t understand eyebrows and shrugs and silence. I’ve heard you speak with him. I know you _can_ communicate more normally than ... _this_.” She waved her hand in his direction. “What’s so special about Stiles that makes you so much more willing to talk to him, when you won’t say more than a few words here and there to your own mother?”

Derek shook his head and looked down at his feet again, his features pinching together slightly --maybe in concentration, maybe holding something back...hell if Talia knew. This was practically impossible with him being so irritatingly _unresponsive_.

“No? Nothing? Can you even _try_ , Derek?”

“I don’t...I don’t know,” He mumbled dejectedly.

“Think: something great happens at school and you want to tell someone. You run directly to Stiles. Why?”

The room was silent for at least thirty seconds, with Derek staring downwards and Talia waiting for him to speak. He opened and closed his mouth several times, and she was very close to giving up on this conversation entirely.

"I thought I wouldn't be understood without words,” Derek eventually said. “I know they’re important, but I just... _can't_ sometimes. Most times. They just...make me feel _weird_ . They get all jumbled in my head. Don’t come out right. You need them to understand me. Most...I mean, the others...they need them, too, usually. But he...Stiles...he doesn’t. I mean, he understands. He doesn't need words. That’s why, I guess. That’s why I go to him.”

Talia nodded, despite him not looking her way. It wasn’t really anything she didn’t know already. Stiles had some sort of weird extra sense that let him read Derek like a book. She just didn’t get it and she was starting to think she probably never would. But it was obvious that he was important to Derek and pushing Stiles away would just push Derek away, which would be very bad. Derek, with all of his social and control issues, should absolutely not be an unmonitored omega at any point in his life. “Okay.”

With that, Derek quickly slipped out of the room and shut the door behind him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to post this last night, but I had to take Biology final exam (which I passed!) and then all my stress over the exam made me too tired to write. 
> 
> (also...this chapter was never supposed to include the flashback scene, but I was so in the mindset of working on the prequel series that it sort of slipped in? I'm sorry it kind of strayed away from Sterek for a bit, but I hope it tied in well. sneak peak at Derek's dad, at least!)

The subtle scents of pine from the ornament-strewn tree in the corner of the living room mixed with the strong aroma of the snickerdoodles baking in the kitchen, created a smell throughout the ground level of the Hale house that Talia could only describe as ‘Christmas’.

She was seated on the couch with Chris and Peter as they watched the pups sprawled across the living room floor, playing with their new gifts. Laura had disappeared upstairs under the explanation of needing to try on her new clothes, while Derek had managed to slip away to hide in his den at some point --Talia wasn’t quite sure when exactly, but he hadn’t returned.

The sound of a car pulling up their driveway got Peter, Cora, and Malia’s attention in an instant.

“The Stilinskis are here!” Malia exclaimed, scrambling up onto her feet and rushing to the window to peer out. 

“Stiles!” Cora said excitedly, running towards the entryway and throwing the front door open. 

“Merry Christmas, Cora!” Stiles greeted, the sound coming out a bit strained. Talia guessed that he was being hugged a bit too tightly.

After a few moments, they shuffled into the living room, still clutching each other. Allison and Malia pulled Stiles into a group hug, where he was holding Allison’s hand, Cora was scenting his neck, and Malia was rubbing her face back and forth on his nape.

“Merry Christmas, Hales.” Noah came into the house, his arm around Claudia and bags of presents hanging from his free wrist. “I come bearing gifts, as long as I get some of those cookies I smell. And don't test me--I have all the receipts still.”

Peter and Chris groaned as they stood up and walked casually towards them, but Talia could smell how unreasonably happy they were to see Noah. She never understood how after so many years of seeing each other practically every day, they could still be so close and ridiculously excited about being around each other.

“Claudia, Merry Christmas, my Dear,” Peter said, giving her upper arm a gentle squeeze, before stepping to the side and pulling Noah in for a tight embrace. “Thank you for bringing me exactly what I wanted for Christmas.”

“Bad dog--you have to share Noah,” Chris teased, pushing his husband so that he could hug their best friend, as well.

“I figured you would have come up with something better than _dog jokes_ after a decade of marriage...you disappoint me, Christopher. Be creative, at least.”

“He probably can’t say the more creative ones around the kids,” Noah chuckled.

Claudia rolled her eyes at the men and shrugged in Talia’s direction, as if to say _What can we do with them?_

“Merry Christmas,” Talia said as the other woman joined her on the couch.

“You, too.”

“Cora, I have a present for you and Allie and Malia.” Stiles reached into his pocket and pulled out a jumbled mess of thin chains. By some sort of miracle, they untangled relatively easily as he pulled at them and he handed one necklace to each of the girls, while holding onto one for himself. “Put them on!”

They scattered to the adults --Cora to Peter, Allison to Chris, Stiles to Claudia, and Malia to Noah.

“Mr. Noah, can you help me clip it?” Malia asked, handing the necklace to him.

“Course, kid.” Noah smiled, taking it from her and turning her around by the shoulders.

“Okay, now look -- _look_ , it’s really cool-- they fit together! The puzzle pieces,” Stiles said, holding out the silver charm attached to the necklace. The girls held theirs out, too, and watched as the four puzzle pieces fit together perfectly.

“Woah,” Allison said. “These are so cool!”

“Thanks, Stiles.” Cora grinned.

“I’m never going to take this off,” Malia told him.

Stiles smiled at them, obviously proud that his presents were well-received.

“That kid is going to be stealing hearts left and right when he’s older,” Claudia said, shaking her head.

Chris and Peter shared an undecipherable look with each other, which almost made Talia want to ask about it, but she didn’t. If they weren’t saying something out loud, there was probably a reason.

“Did the holiday cheer scare my lone wolf upstairs?” Stiles asked, looking around the room.

“Yeah...he got a new book about dragons,” Cora told him. “He’s probably up there reading it.”

“Oh, okay.” Stiles nodded, before skipping over to the base of the stairs and shouting, “DEREK HALE, I’M _HERE_! MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU BIG GRUMPY WOLF! COME FEEL THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!”

Almost immediately, Talia heard the sound of Derek coming down the stairs. As soon as he reached the bottom, he grunted softly. Talia’s curiosity at his odd sound was short-lived, as Derek walked into the room with Stiles hanging off his front. Derek had one arm hugging him, while Stiles squeezed his arms around his neck and rubbed his face against Derek’s throat.

Talia shook her head at the obvious display of how comfortable Derek was with Stiles. It never became less shocking to her. Even _she_ would be annoyed at a kid hanging all over her --yet Derek seemed completely okay with it.

“Merry Christmas, son,” Noah greeted him. Derek gave him a smile in return, then poked Stiles’ rib and caused the younger boy to drop down to the ground with a yelp.

“You can’t just tickle me like that --it’s _rude_.”

Derek raised a challenging eyebrow at him and Stiles sighed, shaking his head.

“You guys wanna play with me?” Malia asked the boys. She dumped out the large barrel of _Lincoln Logs_ onto the floor and began sorting the various length pieces into different piles.

“Oh, wow, you got them!” Stiles said ebulliently. He grabbed Derek’s hand and pulled him over to the spot on the floor where the little girl was. “You wanted them for _so_ long--that’s awesome you got some.”

“I know.” She smiled, pushing a couple of piles towards Stiles.

Talia remembered thinking a barrel of small wooden logs was a ridiculous Christmas present when Chris had brought them home a few weeks prior, but apparently it really _was_ something Malia wanted. Did she talk about them often or something? Often enough for Stiles to know, apparently.

Derek scooted back to lean against the wall underneath the window, watching as Stiles began organizing some pieces into a rather questionable base for a building he appeared to be attempting to build.

“Don’t just watch like a creeper--you have to play, too,” Stiles pointed out.

“Start it.”

“Fine, but you’re helping when I get this bottom part right.”

Talia observed Derek closely as he watched Stiles with a peaceful look on his face. There was no tightness in his forehead, where his eyebrows were usually very active. His lips were loose and partly open, not in their usual hard-pressed line or scowl. It was...nice, almost. To see him not so on-edge.

She had seen the soft way he looked at Stiles before, but now Derek was directly in front of her and she could see it so much clearer than she had….and she almost wished she hadn’t. His eyes held a safe, affectionate warmth in them, full of an unbridled adoration for the boy in front of him. In an instant, she felt as if she had the breath knocked out of her.

_Talia was lying on her bed, her eyes closed and a relaxed smile on her face, as kisses were ghosted across her cheeks, forehead, and finally on the tip of her nose._

_“I’m trying to sleep, you know,” She said softly._

_“Were you?” Jericho asked._

_Talia looked up at him and shook her head. She couldn’t help her grin from stretching wider as he gazed down at her, his green eyes gentle and full of so much reverence and devotion that she felt her heart skip a beat the way it always did when he would look at her that way. She couldn’t fathom how she could possibly be worthy of this look --how_ anyone _could be so deserving of Jericho to look at them that way. Like she was to thank for the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. As if she had hung the moon and sprinkled the stars across the sky herself each night. Like she was the most precious thing to ever walk this planet._

_Jericho raised a dark, curious eyebrow at her. “Why are you staring at me?”_

_“I just love you.”_

_It wasn’t a lie --she had been in love with him since the summer after her senior year of high school and they had never looked back._

_"I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say that.”_

_“I’ll never stop, then.”_

_“Sounds good to me,” He chuckled. He leaned down to press another kiss to her jaw, then whispered, “Laura is asleep...Peter is doing homework...I think that means we’re alone.”_

_“Hmm,” Talia hummed thoughtfully. “Whatever could we do with this leisure?”_

_“Well, there’s a_ gorgeous _woman under me, so...a few thoughts are coming to mind.”_

_“Oh, are they?”_

_“You wanted a bigger pack, right? More pups? I think we should work on that.”_

_Talia laughed and reached up to cup the side of his face with one hand. She ran her thumb under one of his emerald eyes, watching in awe as they danced with mischief and his pupils dilated just slightly, then dragged her fingers down to feel the stubble along his jaw._

_“How did I get you?”_

_“I was a troubled young man with a temper, a bad home life, and no mother figure in sight. You were a strong, independent woman of power. It was really inevitable that I would fall hopelessly in love with you.”_

_“Is this you telling me that you needed an Alpha to help your mommy issues?”_

_“It could also be inferred that you took advantage of my mommy issues to enslave me as the denmaker of your pack.”_

_“Oh, is that so?” Talia shook her head in disbelief. “I think it was a lot more along the lines that you fit my greasers fantasy with those leather jackets and that slicked-back hair.”_

_“Tell me more, tell me more --was it love at first sight?” He sang._

_“You’re ridiculous.”_

_“I know.” Jericho rolled off of her onto his side, propping himself up on his elbow and looking at her contemplatively. She noticed the way his lower jaw was jutted forward slightly as he chewed on his inner lip._

_“What’s wrong?”_

_“I wanted to ask you something, but I was going to wait until this weekend.”_

_“What is it?”_

_“I...I want the bite.”_

_“You do?” She asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she turned to mirror his position._

_“I mean, this isn’t new information. You know I’ve always wanted it...we just never really got around to it.”_

_“You weren’t in the right state of mind before.”_

_“But I am now...right?”_

_Talia nodded without hesitation, her instincts knowing the answer before her brain really caught up to the conclusion. He was so different now than he was. Becoming part of a pack --specifically, a denmaker-- had changed him in the best ways possible. He traded his cigarettes for crayons, his leather for sweaters that he didn’t mind if Laura dirtied (constantly), and his motorcycle for an SUV. He was a good dad. A great husband._

_“So, you’ll do it?” He questioned, hope etched into his features._

_She waited for a moment, before asking, “When?”_

_“Well...I mean, we could do it now. If you want. Why not, you know? There’s no point in continuing to put it off,” Jericho reasoned. Talia’s stomach dropped as she thought about biting him that night. She wasn’t sure she was ready to take the risk that the bite held. “I want this, Tals. More than anything. I want to feel the pack bonds --what’s the point of having them, if I can’t? Humans can’t experience it the same. They can’t understand what it’s like. I want to understand.”_

_“Now,” she breathed, rubbing her hand down her face._

_“The bite is safest to get the younger you are, and I’m not getting any younger than I am tonight. You want me to be a werewolf still, right? Do you still feel that way?”_

_Of course she wanted him to be a wolf. She wanted him to be a real member of the pack, complete with pack bonds and full moon runs --but it was such a huge risk. If the bite rejected, she would lose him. She could never forgive herself for that._

_“This could...Jericho, if it rejects--”_

_“I know, but you can do this...and so can I. It’ll be fine, okay?”_

_After several long moments, Talia asked, “Where do you want it?”_

_Jericho tilted his head to the side to bare the expanse of his neck and shoulder. Talia looked over the tanned skin and traced the raised muscle of his trapezius, then slowly leaned in until her breath drifted over it, leaving goosebumps in its wake._

_“I love you, Alpha,” He whispered, his heart remarkably steady for someone who was waiting to have fangs sink into them._

_“I love you, too,” She said, before running her nose along his skin and letting her shift take over. She felt her eyes prickle lightly as they glowed red and her teeth dropped down. She took a steadying breath, before fitting them over the firm muscle and biting down before she had any longer to talk herself out of it._

Talia was pulled from her memories by a hand on her arm, shaking gently. She instinctively grabbed onto Chris’ wrist to anchor herself into the present as he watched her with a concerned look on his face.

“Are you alright?” He asked, his eyes flicking back and forth between her own, as if looking for an answer written in them. “You spaced out for a minute there.”

“I just...need some fresh air, I think.” Talia nodded, before standing up and crossing the living room towards the front door.

She felt a tear slip down her cheek and quickly brushed it away as she pushed the door open. She walked out and collapsed down to sit on the porch step, dropping her face into her hands and taking a deep breath. She heard the front door open and then Chris was seated beside her. He didn’t press for answers as to why she was having some sort of emotional moment, he didn’t try to hug her--he didn’t even really acknowledge her. The two of them just sat in silence and listened to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees at the edge of their yard.

Finally, Talia looked up and said, “I knew Derek had his eyes, but...I’d never seen them like…that. The way he looks at Stiles --I’d never seen him do that before. They’re _exactly_ the way Jericho’s were. I...It took me off guard, I guess.”

“Peter and I call them his Stiles Eyes.” Chris nodded, a faint smile forming at the corners of his mouth as he looked down at the grass. “Every time the kid is in his vicinity, any hostility or hardness in them just melts away. Peter doesn’t think Stiles has ever even seen how his eyes look to the rest of us.”

“I almost forgot what they looked like,” She admitted. “I didn’t think I’d forget. I didn’t think it would be possible to. But I did. Gods, he looks _so much_ like him. I mean, I _knew_ that, of course, but--”

“You don’t need to justify yourself.” He cut her off, then added after a moment, “He acts like him, too.”

“Yeah --a little too much. He took after his wolf a little more than I’d hoped.”

“I wasn’t referring to that. He’s maybe not denmaker material, but I see it a lot in how he acts with Stiles. He reads to him, makes him food, helps him with his homework. He takes care of him. Hell, Stiles does the same. They’re good for each other.”

“Stiles is...he’s interesting. He has no sense of fear with anything to do with werewolves. As a human, you’d think he’d be born with some kind of concern of becoming the prey--especially around _Derek_. But when Derek starts slipping, he just...pulls him back. It seems so effortless when he does it--as if reigning in a feral is easy. I don’t particularly love his presence all the time, but I admire him for that ability. The Gods know I couldn’t do it when it fell on me...and I never even tried with Derek.”

“He has absolutely no sense of self-preservation.”

“Why do you think he puts in so much effort with Derek? I mean, what is he gaining? Definitely not stimulating conversations.”

“Gaining? You really don’t see what’s going on? I figured Laura would’ve said something to you by now.”

“What?” Talia was confused. Why would Laura keep something from her, yet allow Chris to know?

“C’mon, Talia. Why do you think Derek looks at Stiles like he’s the most important thing in the world? Why would Derek challenge his Alpha to protect him? Why would he be so easily anchored by him?”

Talia’s eyebrows furrowed as she thought about it. She knew why Jericho looked at _her_ that way, but she frankly had no idea why Derek would look at _Stiles_ that way. They were six years apart and both so young --it wasn’t like they were in love. 

“I’m honestly not sure.”

“How much do you know about mate bonds?”

“ _Mate_ bonds?” Talia scoffed, straightening up to look at him. “Chris, they’re _children_ , you can’t seriously be insinuating--”

“Age has nothing to do with the bond--it's a connection between two souls. The universe wouldn’t just wait around for them to become old enough to date for the bond to form. Mates are not inherently romantic, anyway. Since Stiles is so much younger, Derek’s role would likely be as more of an older best friend until Stiles was old enough to be able to have romantic feelings for him. The bond directly responds to whatever the other needs. Derek calms Stiles’ anxiety and helps quiet his mind when it gets too overwhelmed. Stiles anchors Derek and gently pushes him to spend more time with the pack. They better each other.”

Talia looked at her brother-in-law with mild alarm and disbelief. How had she not seen this? Well, she knew how --she had never seen a mate bond in people so young. Only teenagers and adults...and it was _always_ romantic, despite what Chris was saying. She suddenly felt sick as she realized how huge of a deal this was. They often allowed Stiles to sleep in Derek’s _bed_ with him. Now with the idea that they could potentially be mates, she felt guilty for allowing them to do so. She never thought to pay attention to how often they touched, but now...well, how was she supposed to know the intentions behind them? This revelation didn’t sit right with her in the slightest.

Chris seemed to notice the array of emotions flashing across Talia’s face, and said sternly, “You know that I respect most of your decisions, Talia...but you will not intervene in this. They need each other in ways that you absolutely cannot understand. You can't bring this up to them or make either of them feel like they’re doing something wrong by being around each other. It would be detrimental to them both.”

“So, we’re supposed to just wait around until it suddenly becomes...inappropriate? Does Noah know? Would he still be fine with Derek having Stiles _sleep_ with him in his--”

“Keep your voice down,” Chris growled in a way that could probably rival the wolves in her pack, as he leaned in closer with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “I want to make this very clear: Derek would _never_ hurt Stiles. Ever. If Stiles never got romantic feelings for him, Derek would remain his friend. The two of them need each other to keep them balanced, so they are completely unable to harm one another. Their instincts prevent it. And if you _ever_ suggest again that Derek would do something like that --especially while he can _hear_ you-- I promise the conversation will not go as calmly as this one.”

Talia almost called him out on the blatant threat against his Alpha, but instead asked, “You think I’m a horrible mother, don’t you?”

Chris was silent for a bit too long.

Of course he would think that --he and Peter had never liked her.

“Maybe...but I don’t think I have the right to comment on it, when I don’t wish you did anything differently. You did what you felt you needed to do by separating yourself...and I got to raise Derek and Cora. I wouldn’t trade that for anything --and neither would Peter. Derek made us realize how badly we wanted to be parents. Maybe that makes me a bad uncle. Definitely selfish.”

Talia nodded. They really had raised her kids. That probably did make her a bad mother, but she supposed it could have been worse if Peter and Chris hadn’t been around. At least she left them in good hands, right?

Without another word, Chris stood up and went back inside, leaving Talia on the porch to wait for the blotchy redness of her crying to leave her face before she would be ready to return to her pack again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next book "From The Darkness Comes A Spark" (rotates between Peter, Noah, Stiles, and Derek's POV) is posted, so make sure you go check that one out now that you've finished this one! I'm proud of us for getting through Talia's POV without literally exploding. Good job, us!
> 
> I hope you enjoy the next fic! It will cover Claudia's illness (and death), Paige, Kate, Hale fire, and Stiles realizing that he might not be as human as he thought...oh, and our boys (separately) realize they are mates and actively do not bring it up, because 'holy crap what does this mean???'

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! Your comments/kudos/subscriptions/bookmarks literally mean the WORLD to me. Thanks for reading :)
> 
> If you want to read more in this particular Sterek series, bookmark/subscribe to the “Derek’s Person” series. That is where all of the fics I will write that happen within this universe will be posted. This is the fifth installment in the series, so feel free to read the first four while you wait for updates :)


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